Part 24: Military Colleges - 2001-09-10

One American military college that welcomes foreign students is the Virginia Military Institute in the town of Lexington, Virginia. It is often called V-M-I. The students are called cadets. One-thousand-three-hundred cadets are attending V-M-I this year.

V-M-I offers a four year military college experience to both men and women. It considers the learning of self-control to be an important part of a college education. At V-M-I, new cadets learn from older ones. One thing the older cadets teach is the honor system. Cadets must not lie, cheat or steal. They also must not accept lying, cheating or stealing from any other cadet. Cadets who violate the honor system are expelled.

Public Relations Director, olonel Mike Strickler, says international students come to V-M-I for the military environment. This year, thirty-nine men and women from twenty-three foreign countries are attending V-M-I. They study business, engineering, computer science, and other subjects. The cost is about twenty-thousand dollars a year.

Another American military college that welcomes foreign students is the Citadel, in the city of Charleston, South Carolina. It also accepts both men and women for a four year program.

There are one-thousand-nine-hundred undergraduate students at The Citadel. Public Affairs Officer Patricia McArver says the college offers a traditional military education. But, she says, only thirty per cent of its graduates enter the military after graduation. She says international students attend the Citadel to study in a structured environment.

This year, the Citadel has sixty-nine international students from more than thirty countries around the world. They are studying mostly business, education, computer science, mathematics and engineering.

It costs almost twenty-thousand dollars to attend the Citadel the first year. After that, the cost drops to about sixteen-thousand.

You can use a computer to get more information about these American military colleges. V-M-I’s address is w-w-w dot v-m-i dot e-d-u. The Citadel can be found at w-w-w dot c-i-t-a-d-e-l dot e-d-u.